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i io THE BALKAN WAR, 1912 [chap. ix.
his terrible anguish during the fateful days of the
mobilisation and the first days of military operations.
But when at the King’s headquarters the news came
through-, first of the brilliant victory of his troops
at Lule-Burgas and of the decisive successes of the
Serbians in Macedonia, when in a few short weeks
there was nothing remaining to the Turks in Europe
but Constantinople and its outskirts, Adrianople,
Janinaand Scutari in Albania surrounded and besieged,
and the peninsula of Gallipoli—then Ferdinand’s anguish
suddenly gave place to a violent outburst of pride and
ambitious hopes.
A Bulgarian lady, Russian by birth, who met the
King just at this time, told me some amusing details
about Ferdinand’s behaviour; he did not conceal his
almost childish joy and his overweening pride in the
least. The King walked with her along the platform of
the station where his headquarters were, and the
incredible elasticity of his movements were a great
contrast to his usual heavy walk of a gouty and obese
person : His Majesty bounded in the air like an
india-rubber ball. "Now then!" he exclaimed with a
triumphant smile, "what have you to say about it, madame?
What do you say ? Bulgar-Vilayet! Eh what ?
Bulgar-Vilayet? Who would have thought it ? " and the King
went on repeating his Bulgar-Vilayet, accompanying the
words with his most malicious smile aimed at the
Padishah.
At this moment he was evidently remembering his
first journey to Constantinople, when the Sultan was
holding an investiture ; he remembered his meeting with
the sly, obstinate, old Abdul-Hamid, and how he had to
bow before him and to kiss the hand of the Padishah,
his sovereign. Yes, he had gone through it all; he had
done it in an insinuating manner, as if it cost him
nothing; but in reality he had felt deeply humiliated,
and the memory had never been effaced from his heart.
It was at this period that at the Sultan’s Court Bulgaria
was always spoken of as Bulgar-Vilayet (the Bulgarian
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